A/N: Yo

For your patience, you get two fights in one slightly longer chapter.

Now to address reviewers I can't communicate with…

Just A Reader: The reason for Shepard losing was mainly because she was pulling her punches…she didn't want to kill Kolyat. Given enough time, her sleeper hold would've worked out, but her helmet was off and Vetra and the other survivors were in a good position to shoot her in the head while her hands were occupied.

Your Hunter however, I may consider using…maybe not in the near future, and most certainly not in his original format, but I may have a use for him later.

Shados960: I don't know if I'm going to do the Jurassic Park-sort of incident…but I do see MonHun planet as a mix of all the deadliest places on Earth (I'm looking at Australia, South America, Australia, and Siberia in particular) being used as a sort of Switzerland. But I do know that even if they tried to weaponize even a Jaggi pack, it would not end well; doubly so if they tried it on Elder Dragons.

And for the record, I think Elders can get to a point where even the Reapers would not want to mess with them…and especially not the Fatalis line.

Guest 2: Basically, Monster Hunter-verse will take the Alliance's place.

Someone: The Drell hyoid bone is unique, especially considering it's stronger than ours. But Shepard's not a normal human, and if she hadn't pulled her punches, she really would have snapped his neck without much trouble, which was the opposite of what she wanted; she wanted him alive so that she could question him with a First Wyverian present.

…

[Rotten Vale, Research Commission Vessel Blood-Sun]

Activity went on as the handlers and felynes of the search teams went to work on deck, preparing everything for the eventual return of the two Hunter teams that entered the effluvium-infested corridors of the Rotten Vale. The Blood-Sun was a ketch, a small airship built by the Second Fleet primarily for researchers to expediently transport monsters under the effects of tranq bombs. It was also designed as a scout and mass rescue vessel with enough space to accommodate anywhere between eighteen to twenty-six crew for almost a week, while still having enough room to transport a Deviljho. In the event of a monster attack, it had four ballistae on swiveling turrets, with just enough bolts to discourage a Flying Wyvern from flying too close.

As everything went on, a dark-skinned man in the padded, fur-lined leathers of Paolumu armor stood in front of a map of the entire Vale, studying it as he received regular updates from the Plunderer scouts and the teams sent to investigate. He was an older man, the leader of the search party had been through his fair share of combat long before he'd joined the Guild as a Hunter; what he'd lost in his ability to fight, he made up for in his ability to lead, and it was for this reason he was put in command of the search party by Commander Price. Propped up nearby was a light bowgun

The mission was simple; while Tracker Robinson handled the investigation in the depths, he supervised the topside search. Each team was composed of four hunters each with a Mernos serving as a messenger. In order to travel further, no Palicoes were to be taken…however, the Felynes were not merely sitting down twiddling their paws, performing various tasks, such as preparing and sending rations to their masters, or handling messages from the Mernos.

"Any updates on the teams so far?" asked the leader.

"Plunderers have found something, Anderson," answered Robinson from behind, "My team's headed there now."

Anderson snorted in amusement. "You never cease to amaze."

His mind made up, Anderson turned his attention to a female Wyverian handler in a red, one-piece dress with a collar that contrasted with her silver hair. "Miko, send word to my team; tell them to meet the cavern party at their position, and that they're on overwatch."

"Yes sir," Miko said with a nod.

Satisfied with the progress, Anderson turned to regard a slim, grey and black Palico with medium-length fur standing next to him in a full suit of Diablos armor, a large Tobi-Kadachi fork holstered across his back. "Give the order to raise anchor and get the Blood-Sun ready to sail to those coordinates. We're going to get ready to bail them out when the time comes."

The Palico nodded, and saluted Anderson. "Right away, Meowster!"

As Thel ran on all fours, issuing his master's orders, Robinson looked towards her colleague. "You're expecting a fight?"

"When something like this happens, it's better to be safe than sorry," said Thel, "Might as well make sure they're not too far from help when they need it."

…

[Book of Discovery, Aft section]

Kolyat sat on the floor, massaging his neck with one hand while holding his customized Parashu in the other.

Everything went on as normal in the aft section as the eighteen survivors rushed about, continuing their work on the improvised radio on the desert sands; thankfully, the remaining tools they managed to find helped in that endeavor. The only problem was that there were corpses from the disaster that were somehow scattered about the wreck, which meant that some of the survivors had to help remove the bodies.

"How're you holding up?" asked a flanged voice nearby. Kolyat looked up to find Vetra standing over him.

"Fine, all things considered," answered Kolyat, "Not every day you almost get killed by an alien looter."

"I don't blame you," she noted, "Never thought I'd see the day that someone would try to strangle a Drell."

"Almost succeeded too," replied the Drell, rotating his neck as he looked at the subject in question.

"Be glad you're both alive though," Vetra sighed, "I'd hate to see what would happen if either of the Matriarchs were to be here."

"Both of us?!" Kolyat parroted, the outrage clear in his voice, "She damn-near snapped my neck!"

"And it's lucky we stopped you both before somebody died," reminded the ex-smuggler, "It's already bad enough that we're holding her hostage, but the death of anyone makes for a bad impression on a First Contact…which this technically is."

The apparent female was left sitting on the floor, her hands restrained behind her while guarded by three survivors at all times, keeping a fair enough distance to not let her catch them in a grapple, but close enough for lethal shots at the chinks in her armor if need be. Except for the brownish-red hair and her tan complexion, she could very easily pass off for an Asari…or at the very least, a more robust female Quarian. And yet, he could feel from experience that she was at least as strong as a Krogan…which made him wonder if the handcuffs they restrained her with would be enough.

Looking at the gear that was taken off her person and organized on the floor, he couldn't help but notice how primitive her gear was. Aside from some Asari Huntresses and Justicars, nobody wielded swords…at least not as heavy as the one this strange alien toted around, and handheld shields just weren't used by anyone aside from riot police who themselves used omni-tool shields. Whatever they were made of, he noticed the appearance of organic material on the weapons, and made with quite a bit of pride if the workmanship on both were any indication.

Aside from the weapons, the contents of her satchel were spread out and organized neatly on a mat, and Kolyat could see that a good number of them were consumable. There were a variety of small glass vials, each filled with a decoction of translucent liquid, and a few tiny, spherical pills organized by color in a small box carved from some kind of bone, and small leather pouches. Besides the apparent medicines, he could also see a small pack of food consisting mostly of ground meat and some kind of hard bread, some dried leathery strips with seeds sprinkled all over, and a large, leathery sack likely filled with water. He also found a box of matches, with a packet containing wood shavings for kindling.

Next to the food and medicine were a telescope, two books, three rolls of parchment, and what looked like a small, dark brown leather wallet, a logo burned onto the cover. Looking inside, he found a yellow metal card riveted with some sort of writing punched into its otherwise smooth surface, which probably contained information about its owner.

Unsatisfied with his inability to read the language, he put down the badge holder in favor of looking through the books. It was a strange thing in his eyes as he turned the pages; hand-written texts had not been in use for quite some time, not when e-books were available on the extranet, though Kolyat had known that some people preferred the feeling of actually holding a book or a scroll in hand. There was more of the unintelligible language written in the pulp pages of this book, though he could see crude, but vibrant drawings of some kind of animals near the words. The horned creature in the page he stopped at was colored in bluish hues of black and dark gray, but its red eyes stood out, seemingly staring back at him like a Krogan lost in the blood-rage.

After putting down the book in favor of another with marked pages, Kolyat immediately found another set of drawings and writings…arguably more useful as they looked like maps. Looking through the pages, he could see various details drawn in; crude as they were, they provided details on their locale. We're going to want to get a cartographer here to make sense of this, he thought to himself.

After putting down the book, Kolyat quickly saw a large knife made of a strange material that they pulled off the small of her back that was carried in a leather sheath. He picked up the blade and unsheathed it to inspect it; it had a straight, single-edged blade with rawhide-wrapped burl wood slabs on its curved, full-tang grip. There was no need for any other fittings when the bottom of the blade was fairly wide, and its pommel was a ring slightly smaller than it. He could see a swedge going from the tip to the middle of its length, stopping right at the junction where the back of the blade was clipped at a slight angle. It was clear in his mind that it was a viable stabber, the belly near the tip meant that it was primarily a chopping and slashing implement, which made him wonder as to why the looter wouldn't draw it in their fight.

"Oi! Tokage! Watashi no kogatana ni fureru teishi!"

Kolyat was startled out of his thoughts when he heard a rough feminine voice yelling in his direction, and found that it came from their prisoner, the guards raising their rifles at her head; he was not able to understand a word she was saying, but her tone was laced with anger. One of the passing Asari survivors, just as startled as he was at her outburst, eyed her with a somewhat befuddled expression on her face before looking in his direction.

"I would put down that knife if I were you!" she called, after the prisoner repeated the last word. Everyone turned their attention to the Asari in question, an expression of shock on their features.

"You understood her, Tyla?" Kolyat asked, sheathing and putting down the blade.

"A little bit," answered the Asari engineer, "I'm no expert in it, but it sounded like she was speaking Old Thessian."

That was strange in and of itself; Kolyat was no linguist, but even he knew that Old Thessian was a dead language that formed the basis of the modern Asari language. Very little of the original language survived, but classical Asari works such as the Athame Doctrine' Book of the Dead, the stele containing the Code of Athame, and quite a few ancient plays, poems, and songs were written in the ancient dialect. Few were able to read the language, let alone speak it.

"What I want to know is why we can't understand what she's saying," replied the Drell scout.

"Well, if I had to guess, the programmers didn't see the point of dedicating memory to a language nobody uses anymore," Tyla explained.

"You think you can pull her language with a meld?" asked Vetra.

Tyla rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "I'm only good enough to show my girlfriend a real good time, and I can only hold it for maybe a few minutes tops, so I doubt I'll be able to get much."

"We don't have the time and patience to deal with a language barrier," reminded the ex-smuggler, "Just meld with her, and see what you can do."

The engineer sighed before kneeling in front of the scavenger, slowly reaching both hands on the sides of her head so as to avoid further agitating her. As the prisoner calmed down, Tyla's eyes dilated. "Embrace Eternity!"

Silence reigned in the engineering bay as the characteristic biotic field of a meld engulfed both Tyla and the prisoner. Nobody said anything for a few minutes until the two of them broke contact, Tyla's hands slipped off of the subject's head, both of them blacked out. Fortunately for her, Vetra was nearby to catch her before she hit the floor.

"You okay?" Vetra asked, concerned as she woke.

"I don't think I've pulled out enough, but I think I can speak with her a little bit," explained Tyla.

"Better than nothing," Vetra replied with a shrug, "Try talking to her now."

As the prisoner came to, she shook her head before looking back at Tyla with a befuddled expression. "Dō shita?"

Tyla clicked her tongue, before facing the scavenger. Her tone was awkward, unsure of herself as she spoke, trying to find the right words. "Um, daijōbu desu ka?"

The prisoner's eyes widened. "Anata wa watashi no gengo o hanasu koto ga dekimasu ka?"

"H-hai, d-demo..." At this, the interim interpreter formed a gap between her finger and thumb, before bringing them closer together.

"Sukoshi dake?"

Tyla nodded in the affirmative before pointing a hand toward herself. "Watashi wa Tyla desu. Anata wa…?"

The prisoner looked back at Tyla, for a few seconds her expression was unsure as to whether she should answer. "Watashi wa Maya desu."

"Maya," said Tyla, before turning to face Vetra, "Her name's Maya."

Before the former ex-smuggler could get out a single word, the loud shriek of audio feedback pierced the air. Everyone watched as the survivors that were working on the improvised radio trying to shut the thing off before someone's eardrums ruptured. After seconds of noise and frantic effort, the radio was turned off, shortly before a loud, muffled sound had resounded from inside the ship.

"What was that?" muttered a survivor.

"I think it came from the garage," added another.

A loud metallic 'thump' was heard from a large pair of doors at the back of the engineering bay, soon followed by another loud thump, this time it was accompanied with the formation of a wide dent from the other side of the door to the garage. While the technicians moved further away, everyone that was armed took cover and raised their weapons in the direction of the dent, ready to fire at whatever was going to come out; even Vetra began spinning up her cyclone in anticipation for whatever was going to burst out of the wall. As he readied his Parashu, Kolyat noted Maya's expression of shock from the corner of his eye; before he could tell Tyla to ask her what was wrong, he was cut off by another 'thump' as the dent grew larger on impact.

"Nigero!" she cried, "Minasan, nigero!"

"What's she saying, Tyla?!" Kolyat demanded, his eye on the scope as another 'thump' sounded off.

"She's saying we should run away!" Tyla answered.

"Ask her why!" replied the scout, over Maya's demands.

Whatever Tyla had to say was lost when the sound of heavy footfalls could be heard behind the wall; at first, it seemed to fade away as it went further away, before suddenly increasing in speed and intensity as it neared the dent. Metal was torn apart as a large, black thing broke out the doors of the garage before skidding to a stop in the middle of the engineering bay.

Kolyat felt a tremor running down his spine as the creature he saw in the first book he found stood before him, not even bothered by the fact that everyone was shooting at it. The doodle of the animal simply didn't do the thing justice: it was large, at least the size of a bus and covered completely in pitch-black scales; it had a frill behind a head on a long neck, an even bigger one like a Krogan's hump where the base neck met the shoulders; it had what appeared to be three claw-tipped fingers on winged arms, and a pair of large, muscular hindlegs. However, the most noticeable thing about the animal was its armaments: while it already looked dangerous enough with the large tusks on its upper jaw and the axe-like knob at the end of its long, muscular tail, it had a pair of large, curved horns that sat above red eyes glaring hatefully at everyone.

The creature took a deep breath and let out an ear-piercing screech of a roar, snapping Vetra out of her reverie to order everyone to open fire, as it used its axe-tail to bat away an unfortunate Asari before knocking away a Turian standing on the opposite side with a second hit. After tackling at a group's cover, the animal bore down on a nearby Salarian rifleman, who was almost impaled with a swipe of its tusks, before successfully goring the Turian behind him with a recovery-swipe of its massive horns and throwing his corpse off and into a wall with a heavy jerk. As the fight dragged on, not even a near-minute of sustained fire seemed to bother the animal in the slightest as it rampaged throughout the engineering bay; even biotic pushes barely did much beyond further agitating it.

After shooting the creature in the face with his rifle, Kolyat heard the sound of tires screeching before turning into the engineering bay, the animal recoiling as heavy mass accelerator fire pelted it from the flank. As he followed its gaze down the hall, he could see the Asari and Turian the creature knocked aside earlier by the animal's tail in the squat, but heavily-armored frame of a Brumak; the former was driving, while the latter was manning the smoking GPMG mounted on the swivel turret. The animal let out a challenging roar before charging down the hall on both legs, its horns lowered as the Brumak answered, speeding down the engineering bay while the Turian fired his machine gun at the living tank. All hope was lost when the animal's horns penetrated the reinforced glass, the tusks punching through the grate and into the engine block before taking it out of commission in a large fireball. Fortunately both the driver and gunner managed to jump out of the reconnaissance vehicle before the impact, as the animal picked up the smouldering remains of the Brumak, and threw it against a wall.

"Hanashite!" Maya cried out again, "Watashi ga tatakaeru! Hanashite!"

"What's she saying now?!" Vetra asked, taking cover while allowing her Cyclone to cool down.

"She wants us to let her go," Tyla translated, "She says she can fight."

"What do you think we're doing?!" Kolyat asked between shots.

Before she could say anything, Maya called for Tyla. She muttered something at her…gone was the shock on her face earlier, and in its place was fire-eyed determination. Whatever she said seemed to convince the Asari researcher to look up at the prisoner's guards, tell one of them to unlock her cuffs before telling the rest to stand down. As Kolyat walked up towards the group, Vetra placed her arm across his chest and shook her head in the negative.

With her wrists freed, Maya ran towards the mats holding her sword and knife, unsheathing the latter while holding it in her left hand while gripping her sword in her right before running to the fight. "Everyone, cease fire! Let's see what our guest can do!"

As the hail of fire died down, Maya leaped over cover and charged the animal with both blades in hand, slashing at its knee and leaving a deep gash with her sword, eliciting a roar of pain before slipping to the side from a head-swipe. Recovering from the three attempts to gore her, Maya touched the guards of her knife and sword together, letting out a loud battle cry as their blades sheathed themselves in a red aura before jumping back into the fight; the slashes were delivered with more speed and power, spinning away from a tail swipe while cutting at its legs before she was finally caught in the recovery-swing. Maya recovered quickly enough to break her fall, skidding to a halt before running towards a wall from the charging beast, running up a support to flip over it as its horns dug into the wall; with her target below her and unable to escape, she dug into its back with her knife and shifted her weight to spin her entire body in order to slash the monster's back from its shoulders to the tip of its tail.

Recovering from spinning down its back like a buzzsaw, the red aura on her knife and sword lingering even as Maya paused to recuperate as the monster broke itself free. The animal let out a loud roar, before rushing Maya again, its head reared back for its goring attack, only for her to roll under a swipe and break a horn off with a heavy swing of her blade and slashing up at its neck to unbalance it; with its entire weight on one leg, Maya took advantage of the opportunity to slash at its waist and tip it over. The monster crashed to the floor on its side, flailing its limbs to get back up; her opponent vulnerable, Maya touched her blades together before delivering a flurry of empowered slashes into the monster's exposed chest, ending her attack with a cross-slash, opening a wound. With a chink made in its armor, Maya ended the creature's misery as she stabbed into the wound in its chest with her sword, the blade lacerating its way back out, likely cutting through its heart and lungs.

Maya stood before the creature, catching her breath as it let out one last death roar before its head and tail lolled. She took a deep breath, and muttered something under her breath to the animal before turning her attention to everyone in the engineering bay. "Min'na, daijōbu desu ka?"

Nobody had words for what they'd just seen as Maya shook the blood and viscera off her arm before putting her weapons down in favor of nursing the impact point where she was hit by the black beast. She grimaced and hissed in pain as she touched the side of her rib cage, promptly picking up a vial of greenish-yellow fluid, popping the stopper off with her thumb and downing the decoction in one gulp. After taking her medicine, she picked up the book with the maps, writing something down in the pages, leaving the survivors to process what had just happened. The animal they'd tried to put down was able to take hundreds of rounds from their rifles, and didn't even flinch until their comrades were able to bring the Brumak's higher-caliber GPMG to bear; yet here she was, this total stranger that was poking around in their shipwreck, taking down a creature significantly larger than herself using just a sword and a knife.

All the while, as Maya scribbled into her apparent diary, only one thought crossed Kolyat's mind: "I got into a fight with that?!"

…

[Somewhere in the Rotten Vale]

A team of four Hunters traversed the caverns of the Rotten Vale each on the back of a Girros, eyes open for any threats in the area. While few monsters would brave the effluvium-infested corridors, those that did were some of the most dangerous beasts to have ever lived. However, they sought a different prey, having been tasked with investigating the fallen stars that landed in the New World; they were to meet the Blood-Sun at the location indicated on the map.

Of the Hunters, two wielded longswords, one wielded a hammer, and one favored a charge blade. All four were prepared for the worst, prepared to deal with opportunistic Girros packs, or even a hungry Odogaron. Whatever the case, they all prepared their armors and weapons in anticipation of a protracted fight in an effluvium-thick area, and a possible encounter with the ruler of the Vale itself. To keep in communication with the Blood-Sun and the other investigation team, they had a Mernos to serve as a messenger.

One of the longsword wielders was a woman with browned skin and darker hair in a full suit of Odogaron armor, searching the ground for footprints. She was well-muscled as per her career choice, though she favored the blue Wyvern Blade sheathed across her back. The bare parts of her face were covered in white tribal paint, contrasted by a pair of heterochromic eyes; a purple left eye and a blue right.

Her fellow longsword-wielder was a taller man dressed head-to-toe in Vaal Hazak armor, his weapon of choice being a plain blade with a clip point, save for the telltale orange-tipped khaki of Kulu Ya-ku feathers that decorated the sheath and bolster. The body underneath his armor was slender, but muscular; as though he'd spent most of his life swimming, suggesting an origin from a village near the sea. There was a certain amount of professionalism in his demeanor as he explored the catacombs, keeping his eye out for threats that could endanger the investigation team.

The hammer-wielder was kitted out entirely in Barroth gear, even wielding a Barroth Breaker. While much of his muscular body was covered entirely in armor, he had a paunch where most Hunters would have more defined abdominals from spending much of his hunting career handling barrel bombs often.

The only Wyverian among them was a young woman clad entirely in a full suit of Deviljho armor custom-tailored to fit her species, wielding a charge blade made from the same monster. The most notable feature on her muscular, but near-albinic body was a pink, cauterized gash that went from her right shoulder to her left hip.

"So what do you think of this mission in general, Zander?" asked the Odogaron Huntress, breaking the ice.

"Nothing much to say," answered the Kulu Hunter, "Just another job."

"Says the guy who keeps missing hunts the Sapphire Stars went on," teased the Demolitionist.

"No comment," replied Zander almost tersely, "They just got lucky, is all."

"Jealous much?" teased the Odogaron Huntress.

"Stow it," admonished the Wyverian, "If they're out there doing their own thing, then they had to have seen them crashing into the land; so they're doing the same mission in their own way. We just happened to be the only volunteers available in Astera at the time."

"Thank-you, Erika," replied Zander, nodding appreciatively. It wasn't a secret that Zander was jealous of the future Sapphire Stars; not that he was incompetent by any stretch, just unlucky in that he'd often left on missions just minutes before the Shepard siblings, Gaia, and Nessus took up what would become the most memorable hunts in the history of Astera…or returning just as they came back. Far from using this resentment to degrade them, he would channel his frustrations to make himself a better hunter, particularly in the Rotten Vale, where he'd taken on an investigation to slay a Vaal Hazak single-handedly.

"What about you, Danielle?" asked the Demolitionist, "Why'd you volunteer for this mission?"

"I had a curiosity to satisfy, Laurence," answered the Odogaron Huntress simply. At the age of 25, Danielle was the youngest of the team searching the depths of the Rotten Vale, but she'd quickly proven herself to be a tough contender. Like Zander, she was jealous that she missed out on the mission to slay Xeno'Jiiva, though she did applaud the Sapphire Stars for being able to do so; which was why she kept honing her skills, hoping for the chance to hunt an Elder Dragon nobody had ever seen before.

"What brings you down here, Erika?" Danielle asked.

"In a way, I guess I'm the same as you," answered the Wyverian, "Only difference is that I want to make sure everyone gets out okay."

Erika was a young (for her species) Wyverian woman who was still in her prime. Campfire stories had it that back in the Old World, she was one of the Hunters that took on Gogmazios, which was why her left arm had burn scars on it; a tale that she would neither confirm nor deny. Though she did admit that she was once careless when hunting a Glavenus, which explained the gash going from her right shoulder to her left hip. Overall, she was an expert when it came to hunting Brute Wyverns in general.

"I'm guessing you're here for the thrills, Laurence?"

"You know me," answered the demolitionist, "I love me a good challenge."

Laurence was a man that preferred to fight his battles with explosives, hoping to end hunts quickly before they escalated. Nobody liked him in the Old World for his recklessness and his temper, but cooled down after the explosives accident that cost him a finger and an ear. On that note, nobody denied that he was a good hunter, having become more methodical after his humbling experience; not many were brave enough to take on a Gammoth alone.

Danielle was about to retort when she raised a closed fist for silence, tapping on the sides of her Girros for it to stop before dismounting and looking at a set of tracks in the ground coming in from a parallel corridor that merged into this one. They were distinct in that they were large paw pads, with deep gashes that indicated a set of long claws.

"Odogaron?" Laurence asked.

"Yep," Danielle answered simply, examining the tracks, "Looks like it was just walking around, minding its own business; then it paused and started running straight ahead."

Before anyone could respond, the shrill howl of an Odogaron on the attack echoed down the halls, followed shortly by a loud, snapping rapport in the same direction.

"What was that?" queried Erika

"Sounded like guns," answered Laurence, himself unsure of what he was hearing, "Though not like any gun I've ever heard."

Another burst of gunfire had sounded off from down the corridor. "Let's go!" Danielle hissed, mounting her Girros.

The four Hunters sped down the corridor on their steeds to a grinding halt upon finding a clearing with a steep drop at the other end; after dismounting, they looked down to see five beings wielding strange-looking rifles against an Odogaron. Two of them were thick, with digitigrade legs like a Wyverian, one of which was wearing some kind of bulky backpack, lying down on the ground with a gash in his chest; one was tall and slender, also walking with a digitigrade stance; and two remaining strangers had the figure of human women, plantigrade stance and all.

The Fanged Wyvern pounced, forcing the five beings to scatter; having missed its prey, the apex predator broke its fall in midair in such a way as to allow it to rebound off the wall instead, but left it surrounded. With the Odogaron surrounded, the five beings opened fire, hoping to drown it in a hail of focused fire, only to find that their smaller rifles were useless against the apex predator; the smaller shots were either avoided entirely, or deflected off the creature's hide. The only thing that made the Odogaron flinch were the few explosives fired by the stick-like being, but the rounds barely hurt the monster; even the volley of explosives it fired from its rifle couldn't even scar its head, but were enough to flinch and disorient it.

"They won't last another second down there," Danielle noted, as the Odogaron re-engaged the slender being and the woman, "I'm going down there!"

"I'm coming with you, so leave the head to me," added Laurence.

"Do it," agreed Zander, "We'll secure the area, then join you."

"I'll send the Mernos to the Blood-Sun," replied Erika, "We might need their help to extract the survivors. Once I'm done, I'll render first-aid."

Seeing that their weapons were unable to hurt the Odogaron, the four beings picked up their colleague, turned and ran, only to watch as the Fanged Wyvern pounced and cut off their retreat. As they slid to a stop, the Odogaron's jaws were wide open, its head reared back and body in position to snap them up in its jaws. Before the Odogaron could enjoy its meal, one of the effeminate beings ran towards it, an aura formed around her clenched fist as before punching it across the face, the aura exploding with enough force to stagger it.

Danielle ran off the edge, her knife drawn as she dove towards the Odogaron, digging its harpoon tip into its back as it was about to pounce on the two beings. The Fanged Wyvern made its displeasure at the interruption known by thrashing about, forcing Danielle to brace herself to prevent it from throwing her off from its back. After it stopped thrashing, she continued to stab her knife in the Odogaron's back, allowing Laurence the chance to tumble off the edge of the cliff, his Hammer spinning in the air before bashing it in the head upon landing.

As the two Hunters were busy keeping the Odogaron occupied, the remaining two slid down the slope, helping the four beings. Zander kept watch with his own Longsword in hand, while Erika indicated to the two survivors to put down their colleague in order to examine his wounds, watching as his chest rose and fell.

"Call it, Erika," Zander said, "We need to know if we can save him!"

"He's been cut bad," answered Erika, pulling out a Mega Potion from her satchel, "I'm gonna give him a potion, but he's gonna need some time to recover."

After popping the cork on the vial, Erika poured the Mega Potion into her patient's wounds before anyone could respond, watching as the gashes slowly closed up. "Go on, I'll keep an eye on him for a bit, then join you guys later!"

Zander nodded, going into the fight with his Longsword, leaving Erika to keep vigil over their guests and watching over her erstwhile patient's recovery. The veteran charged as Danielle drew her own blade, slashing at the Odogaron's neck enough to stagger it, giving Laurence ample time to hit the monster in the head repeatedly as Danielle and Zander repeatedly slashed at the Fanged Wyvern's exposed belly with empowered cuts. The Odogaron rolled off its side and back onto its feet, fully enraged as it unsheathed its claws in rage, slashing at Laurence and swiping him off his feet and sending him flying towards the wall before Erika caught him and joined the fight as she drew her Charge Blade. With its attention focused on both Laurence and Erika, Zander ran towards the Odogaron's flank, skidding to a halt as he planted his feet to the ground, a red aura briefly surrounding the blade as he stabbed the hindleg. Once he was done, Zander used the Longsword to help him scale up the Odogaron, before bringing his blade down to sever its tail in one fell swoop, eliciting a howl of pain as the Fanged Wyvern recoiled from the attack.

With its attention focused on Zander, Danielle used the opportunity to convert her Slinger into a Clutch Claw, fire the grappling claw to reel herself in and latch onto its face; after switching hands and with the claw formed over her fist, Danielle reared back her arm to punch it in the eye. The Odogaron flinched, recoiling and re-orienting itself towards a nearby wall before Danielle converted her Clutch Claw back into the slinger to fire an entire volley of rocks into the Odogaron's eye. Blinded with pain, the Odogaron ran headfirst into a wall, the pair of large Barrel Bombs waiting for it exploding violently as the Fanged Wyvern fell to the ground. The Odogaron stood back up moments later, panting from exhaustion while glaring hatefully at the three of them; after a few seconds of seething, it let out one last wrathful howl before limping away.

The dangerous apex predator gone, the investigation team let out a sigh of relief until agonized screams had drawn their attention to the patient. The thick being with the backpack was thrashing on his back, suffering in pain as his three-fingered hands clawed at the wounds inflicted by the Odogaron before his arms and legs limped to the ground.

"I don't understand it, that Mega Potion should've done the job by now!" Erika snapped. A look into the cuts in his suit revealed that his wounds had festered instead of healing. For this to have happened, the effluvium had to have thickened somehow for it to have attacked the thick being this aggressively.

Everyone's attention had been drawn to a loud shriek piercing the air down one of the corridors.

"Well now we know why he didn't make it," noted Zander, seeing a thickened cloud of effluvium rolling in.

"We need to get them out of here now," Erika agreed.

While everyone was still fresh from their fight with the Odogaron, they had survivors that were in desperate need of help. They needed to escape.

"This is Captain Anderson!" echoed a masculine voice from above, "Anyone down there?!"

The Investigation Team looked up through the crevice above to find the wooden keel of the Blood Sun waiting above.

"We're down here!" Erika called up, "One of them's dead, but the rest are alive! We need immediate evacuation!"

"Just in time too!" replied Anderson, "Get back! The lift's coming your way!"

The sound of heavy chains rattling had filled the air as a thick, wooden platform descended from above, crashing to the ground with a slight tremor. "Get on! It's time to go!"

Without preamble, the Investigation Team hurried the survivors onto the platform, one of them dragging the dead body along with them. "We're on! Get us out of here!"

As the lift ascended into the air, the Investigation Team could see a pair of vile orange eyes peeking out from the darkness of the corridor as the cloying effluvium clouds intensified, rolling into the clearing just below them. They let out a sigh of relief from the close call; they were too late to save their colleague, but at least they managed to save the rest.

…

Codex

Athame Rescue Beacon

While the omni-tool is a viable means for communication, its range is still limited to wherever there is a broadband signal.

The prototype rescue beacons designed by Salarian and Quarian technicians for use and testing by the Athame Initiative are 49 cm x 33 cm backpack units designed with both portability and power in mind. Due to the exploratory nature of the Initiative's foray into Sector X, the rescue beacon was also intended to be rugged and reliable, being able to handle many forms of abuse; for this reason, the entire chassis of the beacon is built primarily of carbon fiber to save on weight. To conserve energy, it has a prototype solar panel system that powers advanced signal-boosters and amplifiers, along with a telescoping antenna, and an extranet-independent connection to omni-tools for controls.

Every lifeboat in the "Book of Discovery" and the "Book of Bravery" is equipped with these beacons.

…

A/N: Now we continue.

As to Shepard's VA, I would say that she can keep Jen Hale in her English voice…but when voicing her over in Japanese, I would say Ami Koshimizu in her Zima voice would suffice.

Also, give a warm round of applause to ravenking64 for being the beta-reader for this story.

Please PM or review to me if you have a character you want to show up with the following info:

Name:

Race: Human or Wyverian (They're the only races we see doing any active hunting)

Gender: No transgenders, please! I doubt Monster Hunter-verse has the materials necessary to even have transgenders.

Sexual Identity: Gay? Straight? Bi? Omni?

Age:

Height: In centimeters (please make it believable)

Weight: In kilograms

Body Type: Slim, Muscular?

Skin Color:

Eye Color:

Hair Color:

Notable Features: Tattoos, scars, amputations, etc.

Personality:

History: Just a little of what they've done before going to the New World, like what was the biggest monster they killed, or where they come from. That, and what they've been doing while in the New World.

Guild Status: Are they still active? If not, then what do they do now? Are they Guild Knights?

Handler: Do they answer to a Handler, or to a receptionist? If they answer to a Handler, give a brief description of them; name, gender, personality.

Hunter Rank: Are they Low- or High-ranked?

Equipment: Just what weapon they normally use, and the armor they're wearing

Knife: Describe the knife they carry (this is optional)

Palico Name: Name your Hunter's Palico

Palico Description: Describe the physical appearance; tail length, fur thickness, eye color, etc.

Palico Equipment: Describe the Palico's weapon, gear, and armor

Palico Personality: Describe the Palico's demeanor